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Monday, January 26, 2015

V12:Chapter Ten-Breaking Out

Volume Twelve

Chapter
Ten

Breaking
Out

In which Dodger is freed

Someone
jostled him.

“Dodger,”
someone whispered.

Someone
jostled him again, shaking Dodger so hard he thought he would fall out of his
bed. He opened his eyes, slowly blinking away a haze of sleep. Funny, he didn’t
remember falling asleep. Dodger glanced around the sparse room, wondering for a
brief amnesiac moment where in the hell he was. His head felt like a hat air bag,
filled and swollen to bursting. Now why did that sound
familiar? When his eye caught the half-eaten meal still perched on the chair,
everything came flooding back.

He
worried about the food being poisoned.

He
didn’t stop to think it might have been drugged.

“Crap
on a cracker,” Dodger whispered.

“That’s
what we are going to be if you don’t get up,” someone said.

Not
just anyone. A woman. A familiar woman.

Dodger
blinked as he looked up to the face hovering over him, framed by a halo of soft
light. “Lelanea?”

She
smiled down at him. “Good. At least you aren’t brain damaged.” She pulled at
his arm, yanking him upright. “Now, come on. We only have a few minutes to get
to the platform.”

“WINGS.
Clever.” Though Dodger thought perhaps the doc was reaching a bit with that
anagram.

She
grinned. “As always. They aren’t meant for human flight but he managed to rig
it to hold a couple of people. Now come on.” She pulled on his hand. “We have
to get out of here.”

Dodger followed her to the door, slipping out
behind her and into the grinding, chuffing noise of the machinery. It was
tricky, but somehow they managed to dodge and duck their way past the few men
maintaining the machinery, and made it to the stairs. Dodger tossed a quick
glance behind them, to make sure no one had witnessed their escape. Just as he looked
back, he caught sight of a woman standing beside one of the boilers. She looked
vaguely familiar, but when he turned about to full on stare, she was gone.

“Dodger?”
Lelanea said in a hoarse whisper from a few steps above him. “What is it?”

“Nothing,”
he said, and returned to his escape.

“Then
come on.” Lelanea lead him to the middle deck, and rushed headlong back down
the hallway with so many doors with no labels.

Dodger
stopped outside of Carr’s door and called after her, “Lelanea.”

She
stopped, mid-flee to shoot him a questioning glance.

“We
can’t leave without Boon and the kid,” he said.

She
bit her lower lip as worry overcame her. “You’re right, of course.” Lelanea crept
back down the hallway and joined him at the first door. “Where do you think
they are?”

“I’m
not sure but I know who can find them.” Dodger gently tapped on the door. He
waited a moment, then rapped a bit harder. After another few seconds of
silence, in which Lelanea shook her head at him in confusion, the door finally
opened a crack, and William Carr peered out at Dodger.

“Mr.
Dodger?” he said.

“It’s
time,” Dodger said.

Carr
smiled and opened the door wider. “What can-” He paused in his question as he
caught sight of Lelanea. “Ma’am.”

Dodger
nodded to her. “This is Lelanea, the professor’s niece. She’s come to help us.”

“Ah.
I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Enough
dawdling,” Lelanea said. “Where is Boon?”

“Follow
me,” Carr said.

The
three of them snuck their way down the long hall and into the meeting room.
Carr then hung a left, doubling back into the door on the other side of the
Hepplewhite. This lead to another set of stairs. Carr motioned for Lelanea and
Dodger to wait at the foot of the stairs while he climbed ahead.

“Are
you sure we can trust him?” Lelanea whispered.

“Yup,”
Dodger said. “Kid’s been waiting for a chance to break out of here.”

Lelanea
eyed him with a strange smirk. “Is that so?”

Carr
whistled down the stairwell, a signal for the pair to follow him. Dodger pushed
Lelanea ahead of him, climbing the stairs after her. The stairs led to a full
fledge laboratory. It looked remarkably like the doc’s setup, only cleaner,
more organized and ordered. That mutt really did love to duplicate the doc in
every little thing. Imitate and improve. What a hell of a motto to live by.

“He’s
over here,” Carr said. He stood on the far side of the room, next to what
looked like a metal sarcophagus. Hell, as far as Dodger could tell, it was a
metal sarcophagus. “Your friend is in here. Rex keeps the little boy on the
bridge, closer to the front.”

Lelanea
rushed to the casket and ran her hands along the lid. “How do we get him out?”

“You
don’t,” Crank said.

Everyone
turned to face the man as he stepped out from behind a large metal cupboard
near the door. The only door. Which meant they were trapped.

Carr
raised his hands and stepped around the casket. “Tyler, please. Give us a
chance to explain.”

Crank
didn’t give the kid a chance to explain. He didn’t give the kid any kind of
chance at all. Instead, Tyler Crank leveled his pistol on the younger agent and
fired. Carr seized up in a full body clench as the bullet struck him square on
the chest. Lelanea gave a shout of surprise and covered her mouth, backing away
from the wounded man in horror.

“No!”
Dodger yelled. He ran forward in time to catch the collapsing Carr. It only
took a moment to see that compression would do no good. Crank’s aim was as true
as it had ever been. A gaping wound gushed fresh blood all over Dodger in a
rhythmic spurt.

William
Carr looked into Dodger’s eyes for a single, shocked second, then collapsed.

Dodger
lowered the dying man to the floor and crouched beside him, glaring up at Crank.
“You didn’t have to kill him.”

“Of
course I did,” Crank said. “Traitors deserve death.” He stepped forward and
slipped a strong arm around Lelanea, who cried out in surprise. “All of you.”

Trembling
with rage, Dodger slipped Carr’s weapon from his hostler and stood training the
gun on his old partner. “Let her go, or so help me I will kill you.”

“You
aren’t that good of a shot,” Crank said. “Besides, you can’t shoot me. Not your
old partner. Not me.”

“The
hell I won’t.” Dodger set his hammer.

“Really?
You think you got it in you to kill me? After all that time we spent together?
After all I taught you?”

“Are
you kidding? I’ve been waiting a long time for this. Now let her go or I will
kill you.”

“I
have a better idea. How about you surrender?”

“What
makes you think I’ll do that?”

Crank
pressed the barrel of his pistol tight under Lelanea’s chin. “Surrender or I will
kill her.”

Lelanea
shook her head at him, her fear stricken eyes wider than ever. “Don’t do it.
I’m not worth it.”

Her
being worth it wasn’t the question. Nor was there any doubt that she most
certainly was indeed worth it. Dodger’s aim wavered. He might be able to get a
clean clip of Crank’s head, but there was a better than even chance that the
man would squeeze the trigger in reaction, taking Lelanea with him. No, he
wouldn’t allow that. He tightened his grip and drew a bead on Crank’s head.

“If
I surrender,” he said, “you’ll just kill her anyways.”

“I
won’t,” Crank said. “I ain’t got no beef with her. My problem is with you. Drop
your gun and surrender to me, and your little girlfriend here can walk. Or fly.
Or however the hell she got here.” Crank paused to eye his prey as best he
could from his position. That grin turned into a leer as he drew in a deep
breath of Lelanea’s scent.

Dodger
also eyed the woman, wondering why in the hell she didn’t just change and kill
the man. This wasn’t the time for niceties. They needed to get Boon and the kid
out of here while they still could. She had no qualms about fighting as the
wolf when the demons were aboard the line, or becoming the wolf just to track
down a few escaped prisoners. Now she was shy?

“On
second thought,” Crank said, “maybe I’ll just keep her here with us. The boys
have been working real hard lately. It’s high time they got themselves a proper
reward.”

Lelanea
whimpered at the idea, going limp enough in the knees for Crank to grunt at the
added weight.

Dodger
had to hand it to her, the performance was believable. It dawned on him that
maybe she was waiting for a prompt. Some kind of permission to let go. “Lelanea
isn’t the kind of woman you want to mess with.”

“Really?”
Crank chuckled as he moved his free hand to her breast and squeezed it tight
enough to take her breath in a sudden gasp. “She full of diseases or
something?”

There
was no way the woman would stand for that kind of groping, much less sassy talk.

“She’s
full of something, all right.” Dodger nodded to her.

Lelanea
stared at him, and continued to look scared out of her wits.

Dodger
dipped his head forward, straining as he tried to reach her mind with his. Go ahead. Do your thing.

She
glanced up to Crank, then back to Dodger. Nothing changed. Not her. Not her
fear. He wasn’t reaching her. And for God’s sake, she wasn’t going to become
the wolf. What a time for propriety.

“Lelanea?”
Dodger said. He raised a hand to her, but kept his aim tight on Crank. “Go
ahead.”

Crank
grunted. “What are you going on about?” In his confusion, Crank relaxed his
grip on Lelanea, letting the gun slip away from her chin and relax to one side.

Not
one to waste an opportunity, Dodger fired. He didn’t think twice. Didn’t
flinch. Didn’t consider the consequences. Tyler Crank was a canker sore on the
mouth of the whole Agency. The folks he used to work for weren’t the best
people in the world, but Agent Tyler Crank ended up being worse than most of
the marks they disposed of over the years. The lies. The immorality. The
depravity. And worse than all of that
was the man Tyler Crank made out of young and impressionable Rodger Dodger. If
anyone deserved death, it was Crank.

Crank
caught the shot square in the forehead, the bullet blowing the back of his
brain all over the cabinet behind him. He didn’t engage his own weapon, his
grip on the gun far too relaxed by the time Dodger fired. He released Lelanea,
staggered back toward the metal locker, then fell against it, slumping to the floor
with a glassy eyed look that Dodger had come to know so well.

That
mile long death stare.

The
moment Crank released her, Lelanea dashed across the laboratory and straight
into Dodger’s arms. There she wept and trembled, hugging Dodger tightly as she
repeatedly thanked him for saving her life.

“Thank
you,” she said. “I thought he was going to kill me. I thought I was a dead
woman. Thank you so much.”

Dodger
let the pistol fall to the floor as he pushed her off of him and held her at
arm’s length. He glared at her in wonder. “What is wrong with you?”

She
blinked. “What?”

“You
almost let him kill you. And for what? A little pride? Why didn’t you take care
of him?”

“Dodger,
he had a gun to my face.”

“Like
that’s ever stopped you before.” He shook her, perhaps a bit too hard. But he
was mad, damn it! “Why didn’t you change and take him down?”

“I
… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You
know exactly what I’m talking about. Lelanea, it’s just you and me now. Why did
you let him do that to you? Why didn’t you change?” He pulled her closer,
taking a deep look in her panic stricken eyes. “Are you afraid to change in
front of me? Are you embarrassed? That’s it, isn’t it? After everything we’ve
been through, you’re still ashamed.”

Lelanea’s
lower lip quivered. She looked about ready to cry.

He
yanked her into his arms and hugged her to him, patting her back as she wept
into his shoulder. “You know you can be whatever you want to be with me. You
don’t have to hide your strength.” He held her out again, catching her face
between his hot palms. “You are amazing, Lelanea. You’re powerful when you let
it go. Never be ashamed of that.”

She
stared up at him, her swollen eyes drying as her lips curved into a beautiful
smile.

Dodger
smiled back down at her.

Movement
over her left shoulder caught Dodger’s eye. He looked up to find that familiar
woman again, standing at Crank’s corpse. Miss Rebecca, of the Forsaken, knelt
and dipped a single pale finger into the warm flowing blood. She brought it to
her lips and groaned as she licked. Rebecca glanced up to Dodger, a drop of red
rolling down her chin. Her presence here could only mean one thing. Sure Dodger
had seen Miss Rebecca a time or two before outside of his dreams, but only in
the bubble of a distracted moment. This wasn’t a distracted moment.

This
wasn’t real either.

He
drew his attention back to Lelanea again. “Do you understand what I am saying?”

“I
do,” she said. “You’re saying I’m a powerful woman. And you like powerful
women. Don’t you?” She put her lithe arms around his neck, linking her hands
together behind his head.

Dodger
considered her a moment, so close, so warm, so beautiful. “Yeah, I do.”
Lowering his head, he pressed his mouth to hers. He expected a bite to the
lips, a kick in the jewels and a slap to the face for his forwardness.

What
he got was a mouthful of tongue.

Lelanea
pressed her body against him, pushing her breasts against his chest as she not
only kissed him in return, she took control of the kiss. Groaning, she ran her
tongue across his, snaking it back and forth along the length of his mouth.
Dodger almost fell into that kiss, almost let himself go, almost swept her up
and made her his. Why not? This was a dream, wasn’t it? Why shouldn’t he enjoy
himself?

“This
isn’t just a dream,” Rebecca said from behind them, as if hearing his lusty
thoughts. “This is something far more dangerous.”

Still
attached to Lelanea’s lips, Dodger narrowed his eyes at the vampire.

Miss
Rebecca cocked her head at him, pity filling her dark eyes. “I’m sorry, but you
know that’s not your friend.”

Dodger
gathered his senses and pushed Lelanea off of him. “Who are you?”

Lelanea
returned to her bright smile. “What are you talking about? I’m Lelanea.”

“No,
you’re not. There is no way Lelanea Dittmeyer would kiss me like that. Or kiss
me at all. And especially not when the love of her life is laying ten feet
away, in a casket, of all things.”

Her
lips parted in a soft gasp as she stepped back from him a bit. “I don’t
understand.”

“I
think you do.”

“No.
I don’t.” She raised a knuckle to her mouth and chewed on it for a second, then
pointed a finger at him. “Let me get this straight. We aren’t in love with each
other?”

Dodger
shook his head. “No.”

“I’m
in love with him?” She motioned to the sarcophagus.

Now
Dodger was just as confused as she seemed. “Um, yes?”

Lelanea
laughed, softly as she slapped her forehead with the heel of one hand. “Of
course. She’s still in love with the other one. How stupid of me.”

“Yeah,
how stupid of you.” Dodger glanced to the gun at his feet. “Now, who are you,
exactly?”

“Who
do you think?” a man said.

When
Dodger looked up again, Lelanea was gone, replaced by a man Dodger had never
seen before. No wait, he had seen the man … somewhere. Tall and well built, the
stranger sported a long mop of thick, blonde hair with a Vandyke style beard. He
also wore the uniform of the Confederate army, showing the rankings of a
Commander. Could it be?